The photographic system employing optical cameras, which has been widely carried out, is a system composed of a series of processes such that the photographer captures images employing a camera loaded with a silver halide light-sensitive photographic material; at a photofinisher, according to the photographer's request, the exposed silver halide light-sensitive photographic material is subjected to negative film processing including development, bleaching and fixing, or bleach-fixing, washing or stabilizing process, substituting washing, drying; printing exposure is carried out; the exposed color paper is subjected to paper processing such as development, bleach and fixing or bleach-fixing, washing or stabilizing process, substituting washing; negative materials and positive pictures (prints) are then delivered to the photographer, and the like.
Contrary to the above system, a photographic system, which is the current in recent years, is one not employing silver halide light-sensitive photographic materials, in which an image captured by a so-called electronic camera is converted into electrical digital signals and recorded, and a positive image is formed employing the recorded digital signals.
The photographic system employing the optical camera enables the production of clear images having excellent sharpness, and the low expenditure as exemplified by single-use cameras. On the other hand, the photographic system employing digital cameras needs a fairly expensive electronic camera, and enables the immediate visualization of recorded images through inputting the image signals to a microcomputer without the need of processing such as development, etc., the electrical transmission of images, and the like.
Comparison of both systems in terms of effective utilization of resources reveals that in the system employing the conventional optical camera, negative filmstrips are returned to the photographer; in most cases, they are simply retained and no attempt is made for the recovery of resources because unwanted negative filmstrips are usually thrown away together with other waste; in film processing such as development, etc., silver incorporated in silver halide light-sensitive photographic materials is dissolved into processing solutions during a desilvering process, e.g. bleaching or bleach-fixing; furthermore, because the process solution waste is generally treated by special contracted finishers, resources are not recovered and expense is needed to treat the solution waste contained in a large volume of water. Compared to the above facts, in the photographic system employing the electronic camera, no silver salts are employed and the silver recovery process itself is immaterial so that there is no solution waste. Thus, the system employing the electronic camera is markedly advantageous in terms of saving and recovery of the resources.
Furthermore, in recent years, issues of environmental protection and decrease in consumption of silver resources have become increasingly important, and development of methods to reduce environmental pollution and to efficiently separate or recover silver has been much in demand.
In the conventional system in which a silver halide light-sensitive photographic material is subjected to developing, bleaching, and fixing, the major silver resources exist in the fixing solution and smaller amounts exist individually in the washing water, rinsing solution, developing solution, etc. Conventionally, problems have been that in order to recover the silver resources, these solution wastes, comprising a large volume of valueless water, have been pumped into tanks and transported, resulting in increased transportation cost and processes to handle the solution wastes, comprising removable chemicals. Apparatuses to concentrate the solution waste have been developed and the above-mentioned problems have been somewhat minimized. However, there have still been problems of increased cost due to the expensive concentrating apparatus and power required to concentrate the waste.
As mentioned above, the conventional system is accompanied with several difficulties for the recovery of silver resources, and a system which effectively and readily recovers resources from photographic materials has been increasingly sought.
Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection No. 9-146247 discloses a system in which a silver halide light-sensitive photographic material is not subjected to a desilvering process but is subjected to image information reading, and then image printing onto another recording medium. However, the object of this technique is to obtain digital data and prints and no resources recovery is described. Furthermore, every example describes exposure onto color paper employing negative filmstrips, and return of the negative filmstrips to the photographer is premised.
In order to recover resources from silver halide light-sensitive materials, the present invention is to provide an effective and easy method to recover resources without returning any processed negative filmstrips.